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Canadian women’s hockey star Hayley Wickenheiser has had quite the Olympics, even before she played in the gold medal game Thursday.

The Shaunavon, Sask. native was chosen to carry the Canadian flag in the opening ceremonies, and on Thursday was voted on to the International Olympic Committee athletes’ commission, along with biathlon champion Ole Einar Bjorndalen of Norway. About 80% of 2,871 eligible athletes cast their votes at the Olympic villages, electing Bjorndalen with 1,087 votes and Wickenheiser with 759. The IOC said the turnout set a new Olympic record.

Beckie Scott, a three-time Canadian Olympian and two-time Olympic medallist in cross-country skiing, was elected to the same 12-athlete board and has ended her eight-year term. Wickenheiser and her teammates later posted a dramatic come-from-behind victory over the U.S. to take the gold Thursday.

The perfect Olympic trifecta.

BILY THE GOAT

Russian hockey coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov took the brunt of the Russian media’s criticism over his team’s 3-1 loss to Finland in the quarterfinals Wednesday. Bilyaletdinov was accused of being too conservative in his choices and stifling his players’ natural ability to play offensively.

“We don’t need hockey like this!’ wrote Andrei Kuznetsov, a columnist at Sport-Express newspaper. “There has yet been no greater shame in our ice history.”

Danny Markov, a former Maple Leafs and Russian national team defenceman, was even harsher with his criticisms.

“Our result is a shame,” Markov told Sovetsky Sport newspaper. “In Canada and USA, people are already saying that we’re not a hockey superpower. For me personally, it’s a shame.

“Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin) should give the order for a bulldozer to raze everything down so that new construction can begin while we still have four years left until the next Olympics,” added Markov.

TOUGH TIMES FOR OVIE

Things went from bad to worse for Washington Captials star Alexander Ovechkin, who has decided to stay in Sochi after his father, Mikhail, suffered a heart attack during an earlier game against Slovakia

“But Ovechkin was not informed until after the elimination game against Finland Wednesday night,” said Sergey Kocharov, senior director of communications with the Capitals. “He is with his father right now. He will remain with him. We’re taking it day by day now.”

A special charter flight carrying NHL players from teams already eliminated from Sochi 2014 departed from Sochi on Thursday without Ovechkin.

IT’S OK IF YOU’RE IN POWER

Foreign visitors who were acutely aware of Russia’s law banning the “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors” were delighted to discover a giant painting of two men kissing on the wall of a Sochi restaurant. The floor-to-ceiling image reproduces a famous piece of graffiti from the Berlin Wall: My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love. The work depicts a lip kiss between then East Germany leader Erich Honecker and then Soviet Union leader Leonid Brezhnev from a photo taken in 1979. The so-called “socialist fraternal kiss” was a form of greeting between heads of state of Eastern Bloc countries. Normally it featured an embrace and peck on the cheek but, in some cases, it included a lip kiss. (Relationships between East Germany and the USSR were alarmingly close.)

OLD MAN SPEED

Mario Stecher of Austria, at 36 years and 217 days old, became the oldest person to win an Olympic medal in Nordic combined, when he won a bronze in the 4x5-kilometre team event Thursday. (Of course, Stecher was carried for most of the race.)

GOOD KIDS, GREASY FOOD

How does McDonald’s reward its best-performing staff in Russia? With a ticket to Sochi. The 380-odd staff chosen to work at Sochi 2014 outlets are the cream from 70 city outlets across Russia. They were either employees of the month or star staff members in their hometowns. (And, yes, Lenin is rolling in his tomb.)

QUOTES OF THE DAY

“I invited her to the wedding. I am going to make sure she has lots of cake to slow her down for next season.”

-Bride-to-be Elana Meyers of the U.S. on her cunning plan for her friend and rival Canada’s Kaillie Humphries (CAN), who edged the USA 1 team for the gold medal in women’s bobsled on Wednesday.

“He hasn’t skated for 20 years. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He just wants his face in the paper.”

- Speedskater Havard Bokko of Noway suggesting that former Norwegian skating star Johann Olaf Koss is a little out of touch with his criticism of Norway for skipping the 10,000m to concentrate on the team pursuit.

“We listen to music, we eat as much as possible and slap each other in the face.”